The Cathedral Church of St Mel is the cathedral church of the Diocese of Ardagh and Clonmacnois, located in the town of Longford in Ireland. Built between 1840 and 1856, with the belfry and portico as later additions, it has been considered the "flagship cathedral" of the Irish midlands region,[1] Longford's "landmark building"[1][2] and "one of the finest Roman Catholic churches in Ireland",[2] the cathedral is dedicated to Saint Mél (died 488), who came to Ireland with Saint Patrick and who was ordained bishop at Ardagh, County Longford.

On Christmas Day 2009 the cathedral was destroyed by a fire in the early hours of the morning, the restored cathedral re-opened in December 2014.

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The cathedral is a Neoclassical stone building, at the north-east side of the town, it was begun in 1840 to the design of Joseph B. Keane, with the foundation stone (taken from the ruined cathedral in nearby Ardagh) lain by the Bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise, Dr. William O'Higgins, on 19 May 1840. Work was then delayed by the arrival of the Great Famine, but the church was opened for worship by Dr. O'Higgins's successor, Rt. Rev. John Kilduff, on 29 September 1856.[3] The roof is supported by 24 limestone columns quarried at nearby Newtowncashel,[4] the 1860 belfry was designed by John Bourke, and the 1889 portico was designed by George Ashlin. The cathedral was finally consecrated on 19 May 1893.[3]

Just after 5 am on 25 December 2009 a fire began at the back of the building.[5][6] Freezing weather disrupted attempts by firefighters to put out the blaze as their pipes were frozen solid,[1] causing the fire to go on for several hours, at one point flames were reported jumping 18 m into the air.[3] According to Bishop of Ardagh and ClonmacnoiseColm O'Reilly, who had celebrated Midnight Mass in the building hours before the fire began, St Mel's Cathedral was completely destroyed by the fire,[7] describing the cathedral as "just a shell" and "burned out from end to end".[7] However, there were rescue efforts underway to try to save the campanile before it too was destroyed,[5] as a result of the fire, Longford parishioners held their Christmas Day masses in the local Temperance Hall.[5]

Initial investigations into the cause of the blaze were hampered by the precarious state of the building; the Gardaí conducted house-to-house inquiries in what a spokesman described as a "routine inquiry".[7][8]

The estimated cost of the damage to the cathedral was in the region of €30 million. Bishop O'Reilly committed to rebuilding it.[9] St Mel's Crosier, a relic dating from over a thousand years ago, was destroyed in the fire.[10]

Gardaí began investigating the cathedral on 6 January 2010,[10] they determined two days later that it had not been arson.[11] Mass moved from the Temperance Hall to the sports hall and chapel of St Mel's College while the cathedral was being restored.[12]

Bishop O'Reilly issued a letter to his 41 parishes: "I am now writing the kind of letter that I never dreamt I would need to write. I must do so, since I wear a ring that Cardinal Tomás Ó Fiaich placed on my finger as a reminder that for my time as Bishop I am bound to the Diocesan family in a bond that, like marriage, is for good times and bad. I write this letter to acknowledge that we must stay together in this time of sorrow and bewilderment. I also write to bring some solace to the many who are quite truly heart-broken."[13]

On 18 September 2011 the cathedral ruins were opened to the public for the first time since the devastating Christmas Day fire, with thousands of people showing up to view the cathedral,[14][15] the cause of the inferno was accidental.[16]

In 2012 Fine Gael TD James Bannon asked Bishop Colm O'Reilly to reconsider selecting an Italian organ maker to rebuild the organ in the Cathedral.[17]

A new altar was consecrated in March 2014, the cathedral re-opened on Christmas Eve 2014,[18] the restoration project cost €30 million.[19] Among the features of the restored cathedral are a Carrara marble altar sculpted by Tom Glendon, a silver tabernacle created by Imogen Stuart and Vicki Donovan, a pipe organ, consisting of 2,307 pipes, built by Fratelli Ruffatti, and stained glass windows designed Kim en Joong, a Dominican priest.[19]

1.
Longford
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Longford is the county town of County Longford in Ireland. It has a population of 10,310 according to the 2016 census and it is the biggest town in the county and about one third of the countys population lives there. Longford lies at the meeting of Irelands N4 and N5 National Primary Route roads, the station in Longford on the Dublin-Sligo line is important for commuters. The town is built on the banks of the River Camlin, the name Longford is an anglicisation of the Irish Longphort, from long and port. The area came under the sway of the clan which controlled the south and middle of the County of Longford and hence. A Dominican priory was founded there in 1400, the Corlea Trackway Visitor Centre is located near to Longford, in Keenagh. The Centre houses an Iron Age bog road which was built in 148 BC across the boglands in proximity to the River Shannon. The oak road is the largest of its kind to have uncovered in Europe and was excavated over the years by Professor Barry Raftery of University College Dublin. Inside the building, an 18-metre stretch of preserved road is on permanent display in a specially designed hall with humidifiers to prevent the ancient wood from cracking in the heat. Bord na Mona and the Heritage Service have carried out work on the surrounding bog to ensure that it remains wet. There are other historical artefacts and some exhibits at the centre, St. Mels Cathedral in the town features several stained glass windows by Harry Clarke studios. These include one of his earliest works The consecration of St. Mel as Bishop of Longford which was exhibited at the RDS Annual Art Industries Exhibition in 1910 and it was also exhibited at The Arts and Crafts Society of Ireland fourth exhibition in the same year. The Cathedral was extensively damaged in a fire on Christmas Day 2009, St. Mels Cathedral remained closed for exactly five years following the fire while it was the centre of one of the largest restoration projects undertaken in Europe. It reopened for services at midnight mass on Christmas Eve 2014 and has become a significant tourist attraction. The two most intricated stained-glass windows in the transepts of the Cathedral have been faithfully restored – these depict St Anne, Longford town boasts a state-of-the-art 212-seat theatre called Backstage Theatre just outside of the town, and a four-screen multiplex cinema, with restaurants. The mix and quality of housing is extensive and the Rural Renewal Hi Scheme has ensured that a supply of residential development has come about. The Prison Service HQ boasts a sculpture by renowned artist Remco de Fou which, Connolly Barracks once employed approximately 180 soldiers, many of whom were involved in UN peace-keeping duties, until the barracks closed in January 2009. The town serves as the town of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Ardagh

2.
Christian denomination
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A Christian denomination is a distinct religious body within Christianity, identified by traits such as a name, organisation, leadership and doctrine. Individual bodies, however, may use alternative terms to describe themselves, groups of denominations—often sharing broadly similar beliefs, practices, and historical ties—are sometimes known as branches of Christianity or denominational families. Individual Christian groups vary widely in the degree to which they recognize one another, several groups claim to be the direct and sole authentic successor of the church founded by Jesus Christ in the 1st century AD. Others, however, believe in denominationalism, where some or all Christian groups are legitimate churches of the same regardless of their distinguishing labels, beliefs. Because of this concept, some Christian bodies reject the term denomination to describe themselves, however, the Catholic Church does not view itself as a denomination, but as the original pre-denominational church. This view is rejected by other Christian denominations, Protestant denominations account for approximately 37 percent of Christians worldwide. Together, Catholicism and Protestantism comprise Western Christianity, Western Christian denominations prevail in Western, Northern, Central and Southern Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Americas and Oceania. The Eastern Orthodox Church, with an estimated 225–300 million adherents, is the second-largest Christian organization in the world, unlike the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church is itself a communion of fully independent autocephalous churches that mutually recognize each other to the exclusion of others. The Eastern Orthodox Church, together with Oriental Orthodoxy and the Assyrian Church of the East, Eastern Christian denominations are represented mostly in Eastern Europe, North Asia, the Middle East and Northeast Africa. Christians have various doctrines about the Church and about how the church corresponds to Christian denominations. Both Catholics and Eastern Orthodox hold that their own organizations faithfully represent the One Holy catholic and Apostolic Church to the exclusion of the other, sixteenth-century Protestants separated from the Catholic Church because of theologies and practices that they considered to be in violation of their own interpretation. But some non-denominational Christians do not follow any particular branch, though regarded as Protestants. Each group uses different terminology to discuss their beliefs and this section will discuss the definitions of several terms used throughout the article, before discussing the beliefs themselves in detail in following sections. A denomination within Christianity can be defined as an autonomous branch of the Christian Church, major synonyms include religious group, sect, Church. Some traditional and evangelical Protestants draw a distinction between membership in the church and fellowship within the local church. Becoming a believer in Christ makes one a member of the universal church, a related concept is denominationalism, the belief that some or all Christian groups are legitimate churches of the same religion regardless of their distinguishing labels, beliefs, and practices. Protestant leaders differ greatly from the views of the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church, each church makes mutually exclusive claims for itself to be the direct continuation of the Church founded by Jesus Christ, from whom other denominations later broke away. These churches, and a few others, reject denominationalism, Christianity can be taxonomically divided into five main groups, the Church of the East, Oriental Orthodoxy, Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, and Protestantism

3.
Roman Catholic
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The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church or the Universal Church, is the largest Christian church, with more than 1.28 billion members worldwide. As one of the oldest religious institutions in the world, it has played a prominent role in the history, headed by the Bishop of Rome, known as the Pope, the churchs doctrines are summarised in the Nicene Creed and the Apostles Creed. Its central administration is located in Vatican City, enclaved within Rome, the Catholic Church is notable within Western Christianity for its sacred tradition and seven sacraments. It teaches that it is the one church founded by Jesus Christ, that its bishops are the successors of Christs apostles. The Catholic Church maintains that the doctrine on faith and morals that it declares as definitive is infallible. The Latin Church, the Eastern Catholic Churches, as well as such as mendicant orders and enclosed monastic orders. Among the sacraments, the one is the Eucharist, celebrated liturgically in the Mass. The church teaches that through consecration by a priest the sacrificial bread and wine become the body, the Catholic Church practises closed communion, with only baptised members in a state of grace ordinarily permitted to receive the Eucharist. The Virgin Mary is venerated in the Catholic Church as Queen of Heaven and is honoured in numerous Marian devotions. The Catholic Church has influenced Western philosophy, science, art and culture, Catholic spiritual teaching includes spreading the Gospel while Catholic social teaching emphasises support for the sick, the poor and the afflicted through the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. The Catholic Church is the largest non-government provider of education and medical services in the world, from the late 20th century, the Catholic Church has been criticised for its doctrines on sexuality, its refusal to ordain women and its handling of sexual abuse cases. Catholic was first used to describe the church in the early 2nd century, the first known use of the phrase the catholic church occurred in the letter from Saint Ignatius of Antioch to the Smyrnaeans, written about 110 AD. In the Catechetical Discourses of Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, the name Catholic Church was used to distinguish it from other groups that call themselves the church. The use of the adjective Roman to describe the Church as governed especially by the Bishop of Rome became more widespread after the Fall of the Western Roman Empire and into the Early Middle Ages. Catholic Church is the name used in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church follows an episcopal polity, led by bishops who have received the sacrament of Holy Orders who are given formal jurisdictions of governance within the church. Ultimately leading the entire Catholic Church is the Bishop of Rome, commonly called the pope, in parallel to the diocesan structure are a variety of religious institutes that function autonomously, often subject only to the authority of the pope, though sometimes subject to the local bishop. Most religious institutes only have male or female members but some have both, additionally, lay members aid many liturgical functions during worship services

4.
Consecration
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Consecration is the solemn dedication to a special purpose or service, usually religious. The word consecration literally means association with the sacred, persons, places, or things can be consecrated, and the term is used in various ways by different groups. A synonym for to consecrate is to sanctify, a distinct antonym is to desecrate, consecration is used in the Catholic Church as the setting apart for the service of God of both persons and objects. The ordination of a new bishop is called a consecration. While the term episcopal ordination is now common, consecration was the preferred term from the Middle Ages through the period including the Second Vatican Council. The Vatican II document Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy n.76 states, Both the ceremonies, the address given by the bishop at the beginning of each ordination or consecration may be in the mother tongue. When a bishop is consecrated, the laying of hands may be done by all the bishops present, the life of those who enter religious institutes and similar institutes is also described as Consecrated life. The rite of consecration of virgins can be traced back at least to the fourth century, by the time of the Second Vatican Council, the bestowal of the consecration was limited to cloistered nuns only. The Council directed that this should be revised, two similar versions were prepared, one for women living in monastic orders, another for consecrated virgins living in the world. An English translation of the rite for those living in the world is available on the web site of the United States Association of Consecrated Virgins, Chrism, an anointing oil, is olive oil consecrated by a bishop. Objects such as patens and chalices, used for the Sacrament of the Eucharist, also used to be consecrated by a bishop, using chrism. Before a new priest is ordained, the day there is a vigil. A more solemn rite exists for what used to be called the consecration of an altar, the rite is now called the dedication. Since it would be contradictory to dedicate to the service of God a mortgage-burdened building, to consecrate the bread and wine, the priest speaks the Words of Institution. It can also be used to describe the change of the bread and wine into the Body, the Chrism used at Chrismation and the Antimension placed on the Holy Table are also said to be consecrated. A person may be consecrated for a role within a religious hierarchy. In particular, the ordination of a bishop is called a consecration. In churches that follow the doctrine of succession, the bishops who consecrate a new bishop are known as the consecrators

5.
Sacred architecture
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Many cultures devoted considerable resources to their sacred architecture and places of worship. Religious and sacred spaces are amongst the most impressive and permanent monolithic buildings created by humanity, conversely, sacred architecture as a locale for meta-intimacy may also be non-monolithic, ephemeral and intensely private, personal and non-public. Sacred, religious and holy structures often evolved over centuries and were the largest buildings in the world, while the various styles employed in sacred architecture sometimes reflected trends in other structures, these styles also remained unique from the contemporary architecture used in other structures. With the rise of Abrahamic monotheisms, religious buildings increasingly became centres of worship, prayer, the Western scholarly discipline of the history of architecture itself closely follows the history of religious architecture from ancient times until the Baroque period, at least. Sacred geometry, iconography, and the use of sophisticated semiotics such as signs, symbols, Sacred and/or religious architecture is sometimes called sacred space. Architect Norman L. Koonce has suggested that the goal of sacred architecture is to make transparent the boundary between matter and mind, flesh and the spirit, meanwhile, Richard Kieckhefer suggests that entering into a religious building is a metaphor for entering into spiritual relationship. Sacred architecture spans a number of ancient architectural styles including Neolithic architecture, ancient Egyptian architecture, ancient religious buildings, particularly temples, were often viewed as the dwelling place, the temenos, of the gods and were used as the site of various kinds of sacrifice. Ancient tombs and burial structures are examples of architectural structures reflecting religious beliefs of their various societies. The Temple of Karnak at Thebes, Egypt was constructed across a period of 1300 years, ancient Egyptian religious architecture has fascinated archaeologists and captured the public imagination for millennia. Around 600 BCE the wooden columns of the Temple of Hera at Olympia were replaced by stone columns, with the spread of this process to other sanctuary structures a few stone buildings have survived through the ages. Greek architecture preceded Hellenistic and Roman periods, since temples are the only buildings which survive in numbers, most of our concept of classical architecture is based on religious structures. The Parthenon which served as a building as well as a place for veneration of deity, is widely regarded as the greatest example of classical architecture. Indian architecture is related to the history and religions of the time periods as well as to the geography, the diversity of Indian culture is represented in its architecture. Indian architecture comprises a blend of ancient and varied native traditions, with building types, forms and technologies from West, Central Asia, buddhist architecture developed in South Asia beginning in the third century BCE. Two types of structures are associated with early Buddhism, viharas and stupas, an existing example is at Nalanda. The initial function of the stupa was the veneration and safe-guarding of the relics of the Buddha, the earliest existing example of a stupa is in Sanchi. In accordance with changes in practice, stupas were gradually incorporated into chaitya-grihas. These reached their highpoint in the first century BCE, exemplified by the cave complexes of Ajanta, the pagoda is an evolution of the Indian stupa that is marked by a tiered tower with multiple eaves common in China, Japan, Korea, Nepal and other parts of Asia

6.
Neoclassical architecture
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Neoclassical architecture is an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century. In its purest form, it is a style derived from the architecture of classical antiquity, the Vitruvian principles. In form, Neoclassical architecture emphasizes the wall rather than chiaroscuro, Neoclassical architecture is still designed today, but may be labelled New Classical Architecture for contemporary buildings. In Central and Eastern Europe, the style is referred to as Classicism. Many early 19th-century neoclassical architects were influenced by the drawings and projects of Étienne-Louis Boullée, the many graphite drawings of Boullée and his students depict spare geometrical architecture that emulates the eternality of the universe. There are links between Boullées ideas and Edmund Burkes conception of the sublime, the baroque style had never truly been to the English taste. The most popular was the four-volume Vitruvius Britannicus by Colen Campbell, the book contained architectural prints of famous British buildings that had been inspired by the great architects from Vitruvius to Palladio. At first the book featured the work of Inigo Jones. Palladian architecture became well established in 18th-century Britain, at the forefront of the new school of design was the aristocratic architect earl, Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington, in 1729, he and William Kent, designed Chiswick House. This House was a reinterpretation of Palladios Villa Capra, but purified of 16th century elements and this severe lack of ornamentation was to be a feature of the Palladianism. In 1734 William Kent and Lord Burlington designed one of Englands finest examples of Palladian architecture with Holkham Hall in Norfolk, the main block of this house followed Palladios dictates quite closely, but Palladios low, often detached, wings of farm buildings were elevated in significance. This classicising vein was also detectable, to a degree, in the Late Baroque architecture in Paris. This shift was even visible in Rome at the redesigned façade for S, by the mid 18th century, the movement broadened to incorporate a greater range of Classical influences, including those from Ancient Greece. The shift to neoclassical architecture is conventionally dated to the 1750s, in France, the movement was propelled by a generation of French art students trained in Rome, and was influenced by the writings of Johann Joachim Winckelmann. The style was adopted by progressive circles in other countries such as Sweden. A second neoclassic wave, more severe, more studied and more consciously archaeological, is associated with the height of the Napoleonic Empire, in France, the first phase of neoclassicism was expressed in the Louis XVI style, and the second in the styles called Directoire or Empire. The Scottish architect Charles Cameron created palatial Italianate interiors for the German-born Catherine II the Great in St. Petersburg, indoors, neoclassicism made a discovery of the genuine classic interior, inspired by the rediscoveries at Pompeii and Herculaneum. These had begun in the late 1740s, but only achieved an audience in the 1760s

7.
Diocese
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The word diocese is derived from the Greek term διοίκησις meaning administration. When now used in a sense, it refers to a territorial unit of administration. This structure of governance is known as episcopal polity. The word diocesan means relating or pertaining to a diocese and it can also be used as a noun meaning the bishop who has the principal supervision of a diocese. An archdiocese is more significant than a diocese, an archdiocese is presided over by an archbishop whose see may have or have had importance due to size or historical significance. The archbishop may have authority over any other suffragan bishops. In the Latter Day Saint movement, the bishopric is used to describe the bishop himself. Especially in the Middle Ages, some bishops held political as well as religious authority within their dioceses, in the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associated in a larger unit, the diocese. With the adoption of Christianity as the Empires official religion in the 4th century, a formal church hierarchy was set up, parallel to the civil administration, whose areas of responsibility often coincided. With the collapse of the Western Empire in the 5th century, a similar, though less pronounced, development occurred in the East, where the Roman administrative apparatus was largely retained by the Byzantine Empire. In modern times, many dioceses, though later subdivided, have preserved the boundaries of a long-vanished Roman administrative division, modern usage of diocese tends to refer to the sphere of a bishops jurisdiction. As of January 2015, in the Catholic Church there are 2,851 regular dioceses,1 papal see,641 archdioceses and 2,209 dioceses in the world, in the Eastern rites in communion with the Pope, the equivalent unit is called an eparchy. Eastern Orthodoxy calls dioceses metropoleis in the Greek tradition or eparchies in the Slavic tradition, after the Reformation, the Church of England retained the existing diocesan structure which remains throughout the Anglican Communion. The one change is that the areas administered under the Archbishop of Canterbury and Archbishop of York are properly referred to as provinces and this usage is relatively common in the Anglican Communion. Certain Lutheran denominations such as the Church of Sweden do have individual dioceses similar to Roman Catholics and these dioceses and archdioceses are under the government of a bishop. Other Lutheran bodies and synods that have dioceses and bishops include the Church of Denmark, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, the Evangelical Church in Germany, rather, it is divided into a middle judicatory. The Lutheran Church-International, based in Springfield, Illinois, presently uses a traditional diocesan structure and its current president is Archbishop Robert W. Hotes. The Church of God in Christ has dioceses throughout the United States, in the COGIC, each state is divided up into at least three dioceses that are all led by a bishop, but some states as many as seven dioceses

8.
Roman Catholic Diocese of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise
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The Diocese of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise is a Roman Catholic diocese in Ireland. The diocese is entirely within the Republic of Ireland and contains most of counties Longford and Leitrim, with parts of counties Cavan, Offaly, Roscommon, Sligo, the main towns in the diocese are Athlone, Ballymahon, Carrick-on-Shannon, Edgeworthstown, Granard and Longford. On Christmas Day 2009, St Mels cathedral in Longford was destroyed by fire, bishop OReilly said that the building is just a shell and burned out from end to end. The bishop said construction on the Cathedral began in 1840 and he described it as a flagship Cathedrals of the midlands and it is unclear what caused the fire to start at this time. Owen, Ardagh and Clonmacnois, Footsteps of Mel and Ciarán, official Diocesan website Map of parishes in diocese Longford Parish and St Mels Cathedral Diocese of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise Herbermann, Charles, ed. Ardagh. Catholic Hierarchy This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Herbermann, Charles

9.
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Armagh
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The Archdiocese of Armagh is a Roman Catholic archdiocese in the northern part of Ireland. The Ordinary is the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Armagh who is also the Metropolitan of the Ecclesiastical province of Armagh, the mother church is St Patricks Cathedral. The claims of the archdiocese to pre-eminence in Ireland as the primatial see and it was formally recognised as a metropolitan province in 1152 by the Synod of Kells. As of September 2014 the incumbent Archbishop is Eamon Martin, the Province of Armagh is one of the four ecclesiastical provinces that together form the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland, the others are Dublin, Tuam and Cashel. The geographical remit of the province straddles both political jurisdictions in the island of Ireland – the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom of Great Britain, in Northern Ireland, the remit covers parts of the former administrative counties of Armagh, Londonderry and Tyrone. In the Republic of Ireland, the remit covers parts of the government area of Louth. It contains the city of Armagh and the large towns Ardee, Coalisland, Drogheda, Dundalk, Dungannon, the suffragan dioceses of the Metropolitan Province are, Ardagh and Clonmacnoise Clogher Derry Down and Connor Dromore Kilmore Meath Raphoe St. He also founded a school in the place, which soon became famous. In the course of other religious bodies settled in Armagh, such as the Culdees. The city of Armagh was thus until modern times a purely ecclesiastical establishment, about 448, St. Patrick, aided by Secundinus and Auxilius, two of his disciples, held a synod at Armagh, of which some of the canons are still extant. In Irish times, the primacy of Armagh was questioned only by the southern centre of the Irish Church. For many centuries the primates were accustomed to make circuits and visitations through various parts of the country for the collection of their dues and this was called the Cattlecess, or the Law of St. Patrick. Beginning in 734, during the incumbency of Primate Congus, it continued long after the Cambro-Norman invasion. Two kings gave it their royal sanction, Felim, King of Munster, in 822, the record of the latters sanction is preserved in the Book of Armagh, in the handwriting of Brian Borus chaplain. To add solemnity to their tours, the primates were in the habit of carrying with them the shrine of St. Patrick. The Irish annals record no fewer than seventeen burnings of the city and it was plundered on numerous occasions by the Danes and the clergy driven out of it. It was also sacked during the conquest of Ulster by the Cambro-Normans, the chiefs of the tribe in whose territory Armagh stood usurped the position and temporal emoluments of the primacy and discharged by deputy the ecclesiastical functions. The abuse continued for eight generations until Cellach, known as St. Celsus, who was intruded as a layman, had himself consecrated bishop, and ruled the see with great wisdom

10.
Saint Patrick
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Saint Patrick was a fifth-century Romano-British Christian missionary and bishop in Ireland. Known as the Apostle of Ireland, he is the patron saint of Ireland, along with saints Brigit of Kildare. He is also venerated in the Anglican Communion, the Old Catholic Church and in the Eastern Orthodox Church as equal-to-the-apostles and Enlightener of Ireland. The dates of Patricks life cannot be fixed with certainty but there is agreement that he was active as a missionary in Ireland during the second half of the 5th century. He has been generally so regarded ever since, despite evidence of some earlier Christian presence in Ireland, after becoming a cleric, he returned to northern and western Ireland. In later life, he served as a bishop, but little is known about the places where he worked, by the seventh century, he had already come to be revered as the patron saint of Ireland. Saint Patricks Day is observed on 17 March, the date of his death. It is celebrated inside and outside Ireland as a religious and cultural holiday, in the dioceses of Ireland, it is both a solemnity and a holy day of obligation, it is also a celebration of Ireland itself. Two Latin works survive which are accepted as having been written by St. Patrick. These are the Declaration and the Letter to the soldiers of Coroticus, the Declaration is the more biographical of the two. In it, Patrick gives an account of his life. Most available details of his life are from subsequent hagiographies and annals, the only name that Patrick uses for himself in his own writings is Pātricius, which gives Old Irish Pátraic and Modern Irish Pádraig, English Patrick and Welsh Padrig. Hagiography records other names he is said to have borne, Magonus appears in the ninth century Historia Brittonum as Maun, descending from British *Magunos, meaning servant-lad. Succetus, which appears in Muirchú moccu Machthenis seventh century Life as Sochet, is identified by Mac Neill as a word of British origin meaning swineherd. The dates of Patricks life are uncertain, there are conflicting regarding the year of his death. His own writings provide no evidence for any dating more precise than the 5th century generally, the Letter to Coroticus implies that the Franks were still pagans at the time of writing, their conversion to Christianity is dated to the period 496–508. The Irish annals for the century date Patricks arrival in Ireland at 432. The date 432 was probably chosen to minimise the contribution of Palladius, who was known to have sent to Ireland in 431

11.
Ardagh, County Longford
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Ardagh is a village in County Longford, Ireland about 10 km from Longford Town. It is located off the N4 road, there are several important Early Christian sites in and near Ardagh, including the Church of St. Mel. It is suggested that Saint Patrick built a church here in the fifth century, much of the village was built as an Estate Village in the 19th century, based on a Swiss design by the local landlords - the Fetherston baronets. The village was awarded the Prix dHonneur of the Entente Florale, edgeworthstown railway station is around 9 kilometres from the village. Until the evening of 24 August 2013 Bus Éireann route 118 served Ardagh on Saturdays only allowing passengers to travel into Longford for a few hours, list of towns and villages in Ireland The Tidy Towns of Ireland Celebrating 50 years Urban Conservation Plan Kirsty Anne Murphie

12.
Great Famine (Ireland)
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The Great Famine or the Great Hunger was a period of mass starvation, disease, and emigration in Ireland between 1845 and 1852. It is sometimes referred to, mostly outside Ireland, as the Irish Potato Famine, during the famine, approximately one million people died and a million more emigrated from Ireland, causing the islands population to fall by between 20% and 25%. The proximate cause of famine was potato blight, which ravaged potato crops throughout Europe during the 1840s, the famine was a watershed in the history of Ireland, which was then part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The famine and its effects permanently changed the demographic, political. For both the native Irish and those in the diaspora, the famine entered folk memory. Ireland sent 105 members of parliament to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, between 1832 and 1859, 70% of Irish representatives were landowners or the sons of landowners. The laws had largely been reformed by 1793, and the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 allowed Irish Catholics to again sit in parliament, during the 18th century, the middleman system for managing landed property was introduced. Rent collection was left in the hands of the landlords agents and this assured the landlord of a regular income, and relieved them of direct responsibility, while leaving tenants open to exploitation by the middlemen. Catholics, the bulk of whom lived in conditions of poverty and insecurity despite Catholic emancipation in 1829, made up 80% of the population. At the top of the pyramid was the ascendancy class, the English and Anglo-Irish families who owned most of the land. Some of their estates were vast, for example, the Earl of Lucan owned over 60,000 acres, many of these landlords lived in England and were known as absentee landlords. The rent revenue—collected from impoverished tenants who were paid wages to raise crops. In 1843, the British Government considered that the question in Ireland was the root cause of disaffection in the country. They established a Royal Commission, chaired by the Earl of Devon, Daniel OConnell described this commission as perfectly one-sided, being composed of landlords, with no tenant representation. In February 1845, Devon reported, It would be impossible adequately to describe the privations which they habitually and silently endure, in many districts their only food is the potato, their only beverage water. Their cabins are seldom a protection against the weather, a bed or a blanket is a rare luxury. And nearly in all their pig and a manure heap constitute their only property, the Commission stated that bad relations between landlord and tenant were principally responsible. There was no loyalty, feudal tie, or mitigating tradition of paternalism as existed in England

13.
Bell tower
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A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Church bell towers often incorporate clocks, and secular towers usually do, the Italian term campanile, deriving from the word campana meaning bell, is synonymous with bell tower, though in English usage Campanile tends to be used to refer to a free standing bell tower. A bell tower may also in some traditions be called a belfry, though this term may refer specifically to the substructure that houses the bells. The tallest free-standing bell tower in the world, approximately 110 m high, is the Joseph Chamberlain Memorial Clock Tower, located at the University of Birmingham, bells are rung from a tower to enable them to be heard at a distance. Church bells can signify the time for worshippers to go to church for a communal service and they are also rung on special occasions such as a wedding, or a funeral service. In some religious traditions they are used within the liturgy of the service to signify to people that a particular part of the service has been reached. A bell tower may have a bell, or a collection of bells which are tuned to a common scale. They may be stationary and chimed, rung randomly by swinging through a small arc and they may house a carillon or chimes, in which the bells are sounded by hammers connected via cables to a keyboard. These can be found in churches and secular buildings in Europe and America including college. A variety of electronic devices exist to simulate the sound of bells, some churches have an exconjuratory in the bell tower, a space where ceremonies were conducted to ward off weather-related calamities, like storms and excessive rain. The main bell tower of the Cathedral of Murcia has four, in addition, most Christian denominations ring church bells to call the faithful to worship, signalling the start of a mass or service of worship. The Christian tradition of the ringing of bells from a belltower is analogous to Islamic tradition of the adhan from a minaret. In AD400, Paulinus of Nola introduced church bells into the Christian Church, by the 11th century, bells housed in belltowers became commonplace. Historic bell towers exist throughout Europe, the Irish round towers are thought to have functioned in part as bell towers. Famous medieval European examples include Bruges, Ypres, Ghent, perhaps the most famous European free-standing bell tower, however, is the so-called Leaning Tower of Pisa, which is the campanile of the Duomo di Pisa in Pisa, Italy. In 1999 thirty-two Belgian belfries were added to the UNESCOs list of World Heritage Sites, in 2005 this list was extended with one Belgian and twenty-three Northern French belfries and is since known as Belfries of Belgium and France. In the Middle Ages, cities sometimes kept their important documents in belfries, not all are on a large scale, the bell tower of Katúň, in Slovakia, is typical of the many more modest structures that were once common in country areas. Archaic wooden bell towers survive adjoining churches in Lithuania and as well as in parts of Poland

14.
Harry Clarke
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Harry Clarke was an Irish stained-glass artist and book illustrator. Born in Dublin, he was a figure in the Irish Arts and Crafts Movement. Henry Patrick Clarke was born 17 March 1889, younger son and third child of Joshua Clarke, church decorator Joshua Clarke moved to Dublin from Leeds in 1877 and started a decorating business Joshua Clarke & Sons, which later incorporated a stained glass division. Through his work with his father, Clarke was exposed to many schools of art but Art Nouveau in particular, Clarke was educated at the Model School in Marlborough Street, Dublin and Belvedere College, which he left in 1905. He was devastated by the death of his mother in 1903, Clarke was then apprenticed into his fathers studio, and attended evening classes in the Metropolitan College of Art and Design. His The Consecration of St Mel, Bishop of Longford, by St Patrick won the medal for stained glass work in the 1910 Board of Education National Competition. At the art school in Dublin, Clarke met fellow artist and they married on 31 October 1914 and moved into a flat at 33 North Frederick Street. They had three children, Michael, David and Ann, Clarke moved to London to seek work as a book illustrator. Difficulties with these projects made Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen his first printed work and it included 16 colour plates and more than 24 halftone illustrations. This 1923 edition made his reputation as an illustrator, during the golden age of gift-book illustration in the first quarter of the twentieth century. Clarkes work can be compared to that of Aubrey Beardsley, Kay Nielsen, the last of these is his most famous work, prefiguring the disturbing imagery of 1960s psychedelia. Two of his most sought-after titles are promotional booklets for Jameson Irish Whiskey, A History of a Great House and Elixir of Life and his final book, Selected Poems of Algernon Charles Swinburne, was published in 1928. Clarke also continued to work in stained glass, producing more than 130 windows, he and he was especially fond of deep blues. Clarkes use of lines in his black-and-white book illustrations echoes his glass techniques. Clarkes stained glass includes many religious windows, but also much secular stained glass. Highlights of the include the windows of the Honan Chapel in University College Cork, of the latter, a window illustrating John Keats The Eve of St. Agnes. Perhaps his most seen works were the windows he made for Bewleys Café on Dublins Grafton Street, both Harry and his brother Walter were plagued with ill health, in particular problems with their lungs. Clarke was diagnosed with tuberculosis in 1929, and went to a sanatorium in Davos, fearing that he would die abroad, he began his journey back to Dublin in 1931, but died on this journey on 6 January 1931 in Chur where he was buried

15.
Stained glass
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The term stained glass can refer to coloured glass as a material or to works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches, mosques, although traditionally made in flat panels and used as windows, the creations of modern stained glass artists also include three-dimensional structures and sculpture. Modern vernacular usage has extended the term stained glass to include domestic leadlight. As a material stained glass is glass that has been coloured by adding metallic salts during its manufacture. The coloured glass is crafted into stained glass windows in which pieces of glass are arranged to form patterns or pictures, held together by strips of lead. Painted details and yellow stain are used to enhance the design. The term stained glass is applied to windows in which the colours have been painted onto the glass. Stained glass, as an art and a craft, requires the artistic skill to conceive an appropriate and workable design, and the engineering skills to assemble the piece. A window must fit snugly into the space for which it is made, must resist wind and rain, Many large windows have withstood the test of time and remained substantially intact since the late Middle Ages. In Western Europe they constitute the form of pictorial art to have survived. In this context, the purpose of a glass window is not to allow those within a building to see the world outside or even primarily to admit light. For this reason stained glass windows have been described as illuminated wall decorations, Stained glass is still popular today, but often referred to as art glass. It is prevalent in luxury homes, commercial buildings, and places of worship, artists and companies are contracted to create beautiful art glass ranging from domes, windows, backsplashes, etc. During the late Medieval period, glass factories were set up there was a ready supply of silica. Silica requires very high heat to become molten, something not all glass factories were able to achieve, such materials as potash, soda, and lead can be added to lower the melting temperature. Other substances, such as lime, are added to rebuild the weakened network, Glass is coloured by adding metallic oxide powders or finely divided metals while it is in a molten state. Copper oxides produce green or bluish green, cobalt makes deep blue, much modern red glass is produced using copper, which is less expensive than gold and gives a brighter, more vermilion shade of red. Glass coloured while in the pot in the furnace is known as pot metal glass

16.
Transept
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A transept is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the edifice. In churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a building within the Romanesque. Each half of a transept is known as a semitransept, the transept of a church separates the nave from the sanctuary, apse, choir, chevet, presbytery or chancel. The transepts cross the nave at the crossing, which belongs equally to the main nave axis, upon its four piers, the crossing may support a spire, a central tower or a crossing dome. Since the altar is located at the east end of a church. The north and south end walls often hold decorated windows of stained glass, such as rose windows, occasionally, the basilicas and the church and cathedral planning that descended from them were built without transepts, sometimes the transepts were reduced to matched chapels. More often, the transepts extended well beyond the sides of the rest of the building, forming the shape of a cross and this design is called a Latin cross ground plan, and these extensions are known as the arms of the transept. A Greek cross ground plan, with all four extensions the same length, when churches have only one transept, as at Pershore Abbey, there is generally a historical disaster, fire, war or funding problem, to explain the anomaly. At Beauvais only the chevet and transepts stand, the nave of the cathedral was never completed after a collapse of the daring high vaulting in 1284. At St. Vitus Cathedral, Prague, only the choir, in a metro station or similar construction, a transept is a space over the platforms and tracks of a station with side platforms, containing the bridge between the platforms. Placing the bridge in a rather than an enclosed tunnel allows passengers to see the platforms. Aisle Apse Cathedral architecture Cathedral diagram Glossary of the Catholic Church Transom

17.
Imogen Stuart
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Imogen Stuart is a German-Irish sculptor. Stuart was born to the German art critic Bruno E. Werner, as the Nazi Party gained more power, her mother, she, and her sister left the country. After World War II they united with Werner, in 1945 Stuart began studying under Otto Hitzberger, who taught her modelling, carving, and relief work using different materials. She met her husband, the Irishman Ian Stuart, in 1948. The young sculptor, though born a Lutheran, became interested in Irish religious heritage, the two married in 1951 and took up residence in Laragh Castle near Glendalough. In their twenty-one years of marriage The Stuarts had three daughters, Aoibheann, Siobhan and Aisling, read more about Imogen Stuart on her official website, launched in 2015. The Sisters of Mercy commissioned three major pieces from Stuart in 1958, since then further pieces have been added to the College collection where 15 pieces of Imogens artwork are on display. She works in wood, bronze, stone, steel, clay and her best-known works are probably the monumental Pope John Paul II in St. Patricks College, Maynooth and the carved altar in the University College Cork chapel. She is clearly the most prolific sculptor for the Church in Ireland, nevertheless, her work extends well beyond the Church, including a commissioned bust of the ex-President Mary Robinson which sits in Áras an Uachtaráin. A book on her work and life was published in 2002, with an introduction by Brian Fallon, a professor of sculpture at the Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, she is also a member of Aosdána. Select works from her catalogue are now featured in Imogen Stuarts official website, http, //www. imogenstuart. com Aosdána biographical note Imogen Stuart Sculptor, Four Courts Press 2002 Works by Imogen Stuart at Mary Immaculate College St. Stephens Church, Killiney, Co. Dublin- Imogen Stuart, Artist in Residence Work in Carpark, Killiney, Co

18.
Baptismal font
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A baptismal font is an article of church furniture used for baptism. The fonts of many Christian denominations are for baptisms using an immersion method, the simplest of these fonts has a pedestal with a holder for a basin of water. The materials vary greatly consisting of carved and sculpted marble, wood, many are eight-sided as a reminder of the new creation and as a connection to the practice of circumcision, which traditionally occurs on the eighth day. Some are three-sided as a reminder of the Holy Trinity, Father, Son, in many churches of the Middle Ages and Renaissance there was a special chapel or even a separate building for housing the baptismal fonts, called a baptistery. Both fonts and baptisterys were often octagonal, saint Ambrose wrote that fonts and baptistries were octagonal because on the eighth day, by rising, Christ loosens the bondage of death and receives the dead from their graves. Saint Augustine similarly described the day as everlasting. Hallowed by the resurrection of Christ, the quantity of water is usually small. There are some fonts where water pumps, a natural spring and this visual and audible image communicates a living waters aspect of baptism. Some church bodies use special holy water while others use water straight out of the tap to fill the font. A special silver vessel called a ewer can be used to fill the font, the mode of a baptism at a font is usually one of sprinkling, pouring, washing, or dipping in keeping with the Koine Greek verb βαπτιζω. Βαπτιζω can also mean immerse, but most fonts are too small for that application, some fonts are large enough to allow the immersion of infants, however. The earliest baptismal fonts were designed for full immersion, and were often cross-shaped with steps leading down into them, often such baptismal pools were located in a separate building, called a baptistery, near the entrance of the church. As infant baptism became common, fonts became smaller. Full-immersion baptisms may take place in a tank or pool. The entire body is immersed, dunked, submerged or otherwise placed completely under the water. This practice symbolizes the death of the old nature, as found in Romans 6, in the Eastern Orthodox Church, baptism is always by full triple immersion, even in the case of infant baptism. For this reason, Eastern baptismal fonts tend to be larger than Western, and are shaped like a large chalice. During the baptismal service, three candles will be lit on or around the font, in honor of the Holy Trinity

19.
Midnight Mass
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The tradition of a midnight Vigil on the eve of Christmas began in the East, and was observed in the late fourth century in Jerusalem by a Christian woman named Egeria on the night of January 5. The tradition reached the Western world in the year 430 under Pope Sixtus III in the Basilica of St Mary Major, the practice of celebrating Midnight Mass is traditional in the Roman Catholic Church, although many churches now hold their midnight Mass at an earlier hour. Since 2009, the Pope has celebrated this Mass at 10,00 pm, however, when the Mass does occur at midnight, it is still commonly called Midnight Mass. Churches of the Anglican Communion also traditionally celebrate Midnight Mass for Christmas, the Church of Scotland also observes a service just before midnight which involves the singing of carols, although it does not include Mass. Lutheran traditions often observe midnight Mass as a part of a wider Christmas Eve Vigil, methodist observations vary as many hold services at 11 pm which involve the ringing of church bells when the stroke of midnight is reached. While Midnight Mass is not observed in Eastern traditions, All-Night Vigil is common on Christmas Eve and involves the celebration of Matins, the hour which is traditionally observed at midnight

20.
Temperance movement
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The Temperance movement is a social movement against the consumption of alcoholic beverages. The temperance movement began in the early 19th century, before this, although there were pieces published against drunkenness and excess, total abstinence from alcohol was very rarely advocated or practiced. There was also a concentration on hard spirits rather than on abstinence from alcohol, an early temperance movement began during the American Revolution in Connecticut, Virginia and New York state, with farmers forming associations to ban whiskey distilling. The movement spread to eight states, advocating temperance rather than abstinence, the American Temperance Society was formed in 1826, within 12 years claiming more than 8,000 local groups and over 1,250,000 members. He mainly concentrated his fire on the elimination of spirits rather than wine, on 14 August 1829 he wrote a letter in the Belfast Telegraph publicizing his views on temperance. He also formed the Ulster Temperance Movement with other Presbyterian clergy, the 1830s saw a tremendous growth in temperance groups, not just in England and the United States, but also in British colonies, especially New Zealand and Australia. In the 1830s a more form of temperance emerged called teetotalism. This movement originated in Preston, England, in 1833, the Catholic temperance movement started in 1838 when the Irish priest Theobald Mathew established the Teetotal Abstinence Society in 1838. In 1838, the working class movement for universal suffrage for men, Chartism. During the Victorian period, the movement became more radical, advocating the legal prohibition of all alcohol. It was also perceived to be tied in both religious renewal and progressive politics, particularly female suffrage. In 1855, an organisation was formed amidst an explosion of Band of Hope work. Meetings were held in churches throughout the UK and included Christian teaching, the group also campaigned politically for the curtailment of the influence of pubs and brewers. In this period there was success at restricting or banning the sale of alcohol in many parts of the United States, New Zealand. The Temperance movement was a significant mass movement at this time, numerous periodicals devoted to temperance were also published and temperance theatre, which had started in the 1820s, became an important part of the American cultural landscape at this time. The Salvation Army quickly spread internationally, maintaining an emphasis on abstinence, many of the most important prohibitionist groups, such as the avowedly prohibitionist United Kingdom Alliance and the US-based Womans Christian Temperance Union, were started in this time. In 1898 the Pioneer Total Abstinence Association was formed by James Cullen, an Irish Catholic, the Anti-Saloon League was an organization that began in 1893 in Ohio. A favorite goal of the British Temperance movement was to reduce the heavy drinking by closing as many pubs as possible

21.
Fine Gael
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Fine Gael is a liberal-conservative and Christian democratic political party in Ireland. Fine Gael is currently the governing and largest party in Ireland in terms of members of the Oireachtas, Kenny has led the party since 2002. Fine Gael was founded on 8 September 1933 following the merger of its parent party Cumann na nGaedheal, the National Centre Party and the National Guard. Its origins lie in the struggle for Irish independence and the pro-Treaty side in the Irish Civil War and Michael Collins, Fine Gael is generally considered to be more of a proponent of market liberalism than its traditional rival, Fianna Fáil. However, apart from brief minority governments, Fine Gael has rarely governed Ireland without a coalition also included the Labour Party. Fine Gael describes itself as a party of the centre which it defines as acting in a way that is right for Ireland. It lists its values as equality of opportunity, free enterprise and reward, security, integrity. It is strongly in favour of the European Union and opposed to physical force Irish republicanism, the partys youth wing, Young Fine Gael, was formed in 1977, and has approximately four thousand members. Fine Gael is a member of the European Peoples Party. In 1923 this faction formally separates to become Cumann na nGaedheal and it rules as a minority government until 1932 when it’s replaced by a Fianna Fáil minority government with support from the Labour Party. 1933, It becomes Fine Gael also merging with two groups, the National Centre Party and the National Guard. 1937, It campaigns against the enactment of a new constitution proposed by Fianna Fáil advocating a no vote in the referendum, 1948–51, It forms part of Ireland’s first coalition government also including the Labour Party, Clann na Poblachta, Clann na Talmhan and the National Labour Party. 1954–57, It takes part in a three-party coalition government with the Labour Party,1972, It supported the campaign for a yes vote in the referendum to join the European Communities, voters approved of this proposal in the referendum. Both amendments were approved by voters in referenda, 1973–77, It takes part in a two-party coalition government with the Labour Party. Both amendments were approved by voters in referenda, 1981–82, It takes part in a two-party minority coalition government with the Labour Party. 1982-87, It takes part in a two-party coalition government with the Labour Party,1984, It proposed and supported the campaign for a yes vote for a constitutional amendment to extend the voting franchise to allow votes for non-citizens who are residents. This amendment was approved by voters in the referendum,1986, It proposed and supported the campaign for a yes for a constitutional amendment to make divorce constitutional. This amendment was rejected by voters in the referendum,1987, It supported the campaign for a yes vote for a constitutional amendment permitting the state to ratify the Single European Act

22.
Fratelli Ruffatti
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Famiglia Artigiana Fratelli Ruffatti is a manufacturer of pipe organs based in Padua, Italy. The firm has produced more than five hundred instruments of all sizes, in Europe, North America, Africa, Asia, since their fathers retirement in 1992, Francesco and Piero have shared the responsibility of running Fratelli Ruffatti. The primary objective of the design is to blend with the existing architecture. Although most Ruffatti instruments utilize the traditional mechanical action, they also produce instruments with electro-pneumatic and all-electric actions, after manufacture and before shipping, each organ is completely assembled in the erecting room of the factory. Every part of the instrument is then checked to avoid any work to be completed at the installation site. San Francisco Symphony, Davies Symphony Hall - San Francisco, California, shrine of Our Lady of Fatima - Fátima, Portugal. F. Symphonys mighty Ruffatti organ to get a big birthday workout -BNet Article

23.
Silhouette
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A silhouette is the image of a person, animal, object or scene represented as a solid shape of a single color, usually black, with its edges matching the outline of the subject. The interior of a silhouette is featureless, and the whole is typically presented on a background, usually white. The silhouette differs from an outline, which depicts the edge of an object in a linear form, while a silhouette appears as a solid shape. Silhouette images may be created in any visual media, but was first used to describe pieces of cut paper, which were then stuck to a backing in a contrasting colour. Other artists, especially from about 1790, drew an outline on paper, then painted it in, anything that appears this way, for example, a figure standing backlit in a doorway, may be described as in silhouette. Because of de Silhouettes austere economies, his name synonymous with anything done or made cheaply. Prior to the advent of photography, silhouette profiles cut from black card were the cheapest way of recording a persons appearance, the term silhouette, although existing from the 18th century, was not applied to the art of portrait-making until the 19th century. The silhouette is closely tied in mythology to the origins of art, pliny the Elder, in his Natural History Books XXXIV and XXXV, recounts the origin of painting. In Chapter 5 of Book XXXV, he writes, “We have no knowledge as to the commencement of the art of painting. The Egyptians assert that it was invented among themselves, six years before it passed into Greece. As to the Greeks, some say that it was invented at Sicyon, others at Corinth, but they all agree that it originated in tracing lines round the human shadow. “. In Chapter 15, he tells the story of Butades of Corinth, “Butades, a potter of Sicyon, was the first who invented, at Corinth, the art of modelling portraits in the earth which he used in his trade. Upon seeing this, her father filled in the outline, by compressing clay upon the surface, and so made a face in relief, the pots themselves exhibit strong forms in outline that are indicators of their purpose, as well as being decorative. For this reason profile portraits have been employed on coinage since the Roman era, the early Renaissance period saw a fashion for painted profile portraits and people such as Federico da Montefeltro and Ludovico Sforza were depicted in profile portraits. The profile portrait is linked to the silhouette. This is an important concept for artists who design characters for visual media, a silhouette portrait can be painted or drawn. However, the method of creating silhouette portraits is to cut them from lightweight black cardboard. This was the work of specialist artists, often working out of booths at fairs or markets, a traditional silhouette portrait artist would cut the likeness of a person, freehand, within a few minutes

24.
League of Ireland
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The League of Ireland, together with the Football Association of Ireland, is one of the two main governing bodies responsible for organising association football in the Republic of Ireland. The term was used to refer to a single division league. However today the League of Ireland features four divisions – the Premier Division, the First Division, an U19 Division, the League of Ireland has always worked closely with the FAI and in 2006 the two bodies formally merged. All the divisions are currently sponsored by Airtricity and as a result the league is known as the SSE Airtricity League. In 2007, it one of the first leagues in Europe to introduce a salary cap. The leagues most successful club is Shamrock Rovers who have won 17 titles, together with Dundalk, Bohemians and Shelbourne they are one of four clubs in the league to feature a golden star above their badge in recognition of winning ten titles. Bohemians are the club in the league to have played every season in the top division. The League of Ireland was founded in 1921 as a division known as the A Division. The first season featured eight teams, all from County Dublin, the teams that competed in the first season were Bohemians, Dublin United, Frankfort, Jacobs, Olympia, St. Jamess Gate, Shelbourne and YMCA. The eight founding members had spent the 1920–21 season playing in the Leinster Senior League, Bohemians and Shelbourne had played in the 1919–20 Irish League. St Jamess Gate were the inaugural champions, Gate also went on to complete a treble having already won both the 1921–22 FAI Cup and 1921–22 Leinster Senior Cup. In 1922–23 the league was expanded to twelve clubs, among the new members were Shamrock Rovers, who finished as champions, and Athlone Town who became the first team from outside of County Dublin to compete in the league. Together with fellow Dublin clubs teams, Bohemians and Shelbourne, Shamrock Rovers would go onto dominate the league during the 1920s, in 1924–25 Bray Unknowns and Fordsons became the second and third teams from outside of County Dublin to join the league. Fordsons also became the first team from Munster to play in the league, the league continued to expand numerically and geographically during its first two decades of existence. In 1926–27 Dundalk were elected to the league and in 1932–33 became the first club from outside of County Dublin to win the title, Dundalk were subsequently joined by Waterford in 1930–31, Cork Bohemians in 1932–33, Sligo Rovers in 1934–35 and Limerick F. C. in 1937–38. In 1936–37, Sligo Rovers became the club from outside of County Dublin to win the title. During The Emergency/Second World War era Cork United emerged as the leagues strongest team, the club won five league titles between 1940–41 and 1945–46, including three in succession. However they subsequently resigned from the league in 1948, the 1950s was marked by the emergence of St Patricks Athletic and the re-emergence of Shamrock Rovers

25.
Longford Town F.C.
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Longford Town Football Club is an Irish football club playing in the League of Ireland First Division. Club colours are red and black, and the club goes by the nickname De Town, in October 2016, the clubs senior side suffered relegation from the Premier Division at the end of a very disappointing 2016 season. Previously the Town was promoted to the Premier Division at the end of the 2014 season following a stint in the First Division. Longford Town was founded in 1924 but had to wait 60 years for election to the League of Ireland in 1984. In their first season in the league they finished last in the Premier Division and were one of the four sides to be relegated to the newly created First Division for the following season, in their second season they finished bottom of the First Division with only 7 points. They finished in the six of the ten team First Division in each of the next eleven seasons. In the 1998–99 season they missed out a place in the playoff by just four points. The following season saw an improvement when they finished 2nd in the First Division. Longford had a decent season in the Premier Division in 2000–01 finishing in mid-table and that season also saw the club reach the FAI Cup final for the first time where they lost 1–0 to Bohemian. As Bohemian also won the League title that season, Longford Town FC qualified to play in the UEFA Cup in July 2001, a meeting over 2 games with Bulgarian club side PFC Litex Lovech ended in a 3–1 aggregate victory for the Bulgarians. Things were less comfortable in the league during the 2001–02 season after that as they ended up in the relegation/promotion playoff and they had to play Finn Harps and they survived in Premier Division just about. They won in a penalty shootout after the tie ended 3–3 on aggregate, after that tough season the club became an established top division team with four successive top six finishes in the four seasons immediately after that. They also reached three more FAI Cup finals winning two of them, in 2004 they produced a cup double by winning the League of Ireland Cup in addition to retaining the FAI Cup. Because of their back-to-back FAI Cup successes the club entered European competition for two seasons in a row, on both occasions, however, they lost in their opening tie. In 2006 Longford finished in 8th place in the league, the 2007 season was a disappointing one for the midlands club as they finished last in the division and as a result were relegated. That is not the story, though, as the club were deducted six points during the season for failing to comply with club licensing procedures. These six points proved crucial in the end, as without this deduction they would have finished safe from relegation and this cost the club dearly, as there followed six frustrating years in the First Division, before being promoted as champions at the end of the 2014 season. The title was clinched following a resounding 5–0 victory at home to Shamrock Rovers B on October 3,2014, in their first season back in the Premier Division, the Town finished off the 2015 season in 6th position

26.
Longford Leader
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The Longford Leader is a weekly newspaper published in Longford, Ireland since 1897. It was acquired by Scottish Radio Holdings in 2002, Johnston Press acquired SRHs newspapers in 2005. The paper is owned by Iconic Newspapers, who acquired Johnston Press titles in the Republic of Ireland in 2014. The Longford Leader is published weekly on a Wednesday throughout Longford, according to ABC, circulation declined to 7,167 for the period July 2012 to December 2012, this represented a fall of 7% on a year-on-year basis

27.
Wayback Machine
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The Internet Archive launched the Wayback Machine in October 2001. It was set up by Brewster Kahle and Bruce Gilliat, and is maintained with content from Alexa Internet, the service enables users to see archived versions of web pages across time, which the archive calls a three dimensional index. Since 1996, the Wayback Machine has been archiving cached pages of websites onto its large cluster of Linux nodes and it revisits sites every few weeks or months and archives a new version. Sites can also be captured on the fly by visitors who enter the sites URL into a search box, the intent is to capture and archive content that otherwise would be lost whenever a site is changed or closed down. The overall vision of the machines creators is to archive the entire Internet, the name Wayback Machine was chosen as a reference to the WABAC machine, a time-traveling device used by the characters Mr. Peabody and Sherman in The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, an animated cartoon. These crawlers also respect the robots exclusion standard for websites whose owners opt for them not to appear in search results or be cached, to overcome inconsistencies in partially cached websites, Archive-It. Information had been kept on digital tape for five years, with Kahle occasionally allowing researchers, when the archive reached its fifth anniversary, it was unveiled and opened to the public in a ceremony at the University of California, Berkeley. Snapshots usually become more than six months after they are archived or, in some cases, even later. The frequency of snapshots is variable, so not all tracked website updates are recorded, Sometimes there are intervals of several weeks or years between snapshots. After August 2008 sites had to be listed on the Open Directory in order to be included. As of 2009, the Wayback Machine contained approximately three petabytes of data and was growing at a rate of 100 terabytes each month, the growth rate reported in 2003 was 12 terabytes/month, the data is stored on PetaBox rack systems manufactured by Capricorn Technologies. In 2009, the Internet Archive migrated its customized storage architecture to Sun Open Storage, in 2011 a new, improved version of the Wayback Machine, with an updated interface and fresher index of archived content, was made available for public testing. The index driving the classic Wayback Machine only has a bit of material past 2008. In January 2013, the company announced a ground-breaking milestone of 240 billion URLs, in October 2013, the company announced the Save a Page feature which allows any Internet user to archive the contents of a URL. This became a threat of abuse by the service for hosting malicious binaries, as of December 2014, the Wayback Machine contained almost nine petabytes of data and was growing at a rate of about 20 terabytes each week. Between October 2013 and March 2015 the websites global Alexa rank changed from 162 to 208, in a 2009 case, Netbula, LLC v. Chordiant Software Inc. defendant Chordiant filed a motion to compel Netbula to disable the robots. Netbula objected to the motion on the ground that defendants were asking to alter Netbulas website, in an October 2004 case, Telewizja Polska USA, Inc. v. Echostar Satellite, No.02 C3293,65 Fed. 673, a litigant attempted to use the Wayback Machine archives as a source of admissible evidence, Telewizja Polska is the provider of TVP Polonia and EchoStar operates the Dish Network

28.
Irish Examiner
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Its main national rivals are The Irish Times, and the Irish Independent. The Irish Examiner is available on the Irish Newspaper Archives website up to 2003 you will only find Black-And-White microfilm pages, the paper was founded by John Francis Maguire under the title The Cork Examiner in 1841 in support of the Catholic Emancipation and tenant rights work of Daniel OConnell. Historical copies of The Cork Examiner, dating back to 1841, are available to search, during the Spanish Civil War, the Cork Examiner took a strongly pro-Franco tone in its coverage of the conflict. Though originally appearing under The Cork Examiner title, it has re-branded in recent years to The Examiner, the newspaper was part of the Thomas Crosbie Holdings group. Thomas Crosbie Holdings went into receivership in March 2013, the newspaper was acquired by Landmark Media Investments. As of 2004, its Chief Executive is Thomas J. Murphy, the newspaper was based at Academy Street, Cork for over a century, before moving to new offices at Lapps Quay, Cork in early November 2006. Tim Vaughan resigned as editor in August 2016, in March 2017, it was reported that The Irish Times was considering a bid to acquire the Irish Examiner. Circulation was 57,217 for the period January 2006 to June 2006, circulation was 50,346 for the period January 2009 to June 2009. Circulation was 46,687 for the period January 2009 to June 2010, circulation was 46,001 for the period July 2009 to December 2009. Circulation was 42,083 for the period July 2011 to December 2011, circulation was 39,555 for the period July to December 2012. Circulation was 37,009 for the period July to December 2013, circulation was 35,028 for the period January to June 2014. Circulation was 34,422 for the period July to December 2014, circulation was 33,198 for the period January to June 2015. Circulation was 32,648 for the period July to December 2015, circulation was 30,964 for the period January to June 2016. Circulation was 30,090 for the period July to December 2016, Irish Media, A Critical History Since 1922 By John Horgan. Remember When - Pictures from the Irish Examiner Archive,2010 Collins Press Official website - Irish Examiner

29.
Belfast Telegraph
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The Belfast Telegraph is a daily newspaper published in Belfast, Northern Ireland, by Independent News & Media. It was first published as the Belfast Evening Telegraph on 1 September 1870 by brothers William and its first edition cost half a penny and ran to four pages covering the Franco-Prussian war and local news. The evening edition of the newspaper was called the Sixth Late. Its competitors are The News Letter and The Irish News but the editions of the London-based red tops are also competitors. The Belfast Telegraph was entirely broadsheet until 19 February 2005, when the Saturday morning edition was introduced, the weekday morning Compact Edition, launched on 22 March 2005, struggled to replicate the evening newspapers success. Its editorial content has been much more tabloid, with a greater entertainment story count than the evening paper, much prominence is given to English-based sport, and some general features and columns are shared with The Independent and Irish Independent. The paper now publishes two editions daily, Belfast Telegraph final edition and the North West Telegraph which is distributed in Derry, circulation was 109,571 for the period July to December 2002. Circulation was 68,024 for the period January to June 2009, circulation was 49,228 for the period January to June 2013. Circulation was 41,912 for the period January to June 2016, circulation was 40,042 for the period July to December 2016. The Belfast Telegraph is the title of Independent News & Media Ltd. It carries many supplements including, nijobfinder - appears in the paper every Tuesday and Friday, the nijobfinder brand launched its website in December 2008, www. nijobfinder. co. uk, which quickly rose to prominence to provide be the number one Job Site in Northern Ireland. An ad in nijobfinder is read by 466,000 people making it the no 1 resource for finding employment in Northern Ireland, nicarfinder - is the Wednesday supplement, every ad published with nicarfinder is seen by 130,000 people. Nicarfinder launched a new version of their website, www. nicarfinder. co. uk, in May 2012, it has one of the most powerful search engines offering users unique functionality in car search. HomeFinder - the property supplement, focusing on the home - from interior decor, to house prices, propertynews. com is the topmost property website in Northern Ireland, showing thousands of houses currently on the market and content from the Home Finder. Weekend Supplement OutThere Guide - the OutThere guide is printed monthly and is a resource for those socialising around Northern Ireland, family Life - won supplement of the year in the 2016 CIPR NI Media Awards They ceased to print the Irelands Saturday Night sports evening newspaper in July 2008. A sister paper is Sunday Life, also associated is Ads for Free. And the paper holds the contract for The Daily Mirror, The Sun, The Independent, The Daily Telegraph, The Irish Daily Star, The Daily Star. The Belfast Telegraph was named as Best UK Regional Newspaper of the Year 2012 by the Society of Editors Regional Press Awards

30.
Sunday Independent (Ireland)
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The Sunday Independent is an Irish populist Sunday newspaper broadsheet published by Independent News & Media plc, under the control of Denis OBrien. It is the Sunday edition of the Irish Independent, and maintains a position midway between magazine and tabloid. The Sunday Independent was first published in 1905 as the Sunday edition of the Irish Independent, following the creation of the Irish Free State, the Sunday Independent followed its daily counterparts political line by supporting Cumann na nGaedheal and its successor Fine Gael. From the 1940s until 1970, the paper was run by Hector Legge, Legge also published a series of articles by the writer Frank OConnor in the paper. In the 1970s, under the editorship of Conor OBrien, the Sunday Independent became known for a series of investigations by journalist Joe MacAnthony into the activities of the Irish Sweepstakes, OBrien was succeeded as editor in 1976 by Michael Hand. Aengus Fanning became editor following Hands departure in 1984, Anne Harris succeeded her husband Aengus Fanning after his death in January 2012. Cormac Bourke, the executive editor of the Irish Independent. The newspaper is a general Sunday newspaper, covering news and politics and it is published in five sections, News, Sport, Business, Property, and Living, as well as a magazine section. In terms of news, while the newspaper maintains a broadsheet outlook and it has also been criticised for regularly tending towards sensationalism, and for the often opinion-focused, rather than news-focused nature of its articles. It is probably better described as a newspaper, rather than a newspaper of record. In the 1980s and 1990s, the Deputy Editor was Anne Harris, the Governments former Minister for Defence, Willie ODea writes a weekly column for the newspaper. The former partner of Bertie Ahern, Celia Larkin has also started writing as a columnist for the following the closure of her beauty salon business. Popularly nicknamed The Sindo, the paper has been a critic of the Provisional IRA. Many of the Sunday Independents columnists also criticised Hume for negotiating with Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams and it was strongly supportive of the Progressive Democrats and in favour of income tax reduction and the rolling back of the state. Major issues often include big government, the size of the sector, terrorism, and more recently. It usually features articles by Alan Ruddock, Jody Corcoran, Brendan OConnor, Anne Harris, Deputy Editor Willie Kealy and, prior to his death, former editor Aengus Fanning also contributed material here. The Sunday Independent also took a negative tone towards rival media outlets RTÉ, Circulation was 291,323 for the period June 2004 to January 2005 Circulation was 238,798 for the period January to June 2012. Circulation was 237,185 for the period July to December 2012, Circulation was 199,210 for the period January to June 2016

31.
The Irish Times
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The Irish Times is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Kevin OSullivan who succeeded Geraldine Kennedy in 2011, the Irish Times is published every day except Sundays. Though formed as a Protestant nationalist paper, within two decades and under new owners it had become the voice of Irish unionism. It is no longer considered a unionist paper, it is perceived as being politically liberal and progressive. The papers most prominent columnists include writer and arts commentator Fintan OToole, former Taoiseach, Garret FitzGerald was also a columnist. Senior international figures, including Tony Blair and Bill Clinton, have written for its op-ed page and its most prominent columns have included Drapier, Rite and Reason and the long-running An Irishmans Diary. An Irishmans Diary was penned by Patrick Campbell in the forties, by Seamus Kelly from 1949-1979, since Myers move to the rival Irish Independent, An Irishmans Diary is usually the work of Frank McNally. On the sports pages, Philip Reid is the papers golf correspondent, one of its most famous columns was the biting and humorous Cruiskeen Lawn satire column written by Myles na gCopaleen, the pen name of Brian ONolan who also wrote books using the name Flann OBrien. Cruiskeen Lawn is an Anglicised spelling of the Irish words cruiscín lán, Cruiskeen Lawn made its debut in October 1940 and appeared with varying regularity until ONolans death in 1966. The first appearance of a newspaper using the name The Irish Times occurred in 1823, the title was revived as a thrice weekly publication by Major Lawrence E. Knox, with the first edition being published on 29 March 1859. It was founded as a moderate Protestant Nationalist newspaper, reflecting the politics of Knox and its headquarters were at 4 Lower Abbey Street in Dublin. In its early days, its main competitor was the Dublin Daily Express, after Knoxs death in 1873 the paper was sold to the widow of Sir John Arnott, MP, a former Lord Mayor of Cork and owner of Arnotts, one of Dublins major Department stores. The sale, for £35,000, led to two major changes and its headquarters was shifted to 31 Westmoreland Street, remaining in buildings on or near that site until 2005. Its politics also shifted dramatically, becoming predominantly Protestant and Unionist, the paper, along with the Irish Independent and various regional papers, called for the execution of the leaders of the failed 1916 Easter Rising. Though the paper became a listed company in 1900, the family continued to hold a majority shareholding until the 1960s. The last member of the Arnott family to sit on the board was Sir Lauriston Arnott. The editor during the 1930s, R. M. Smyllie, had strong anti-fascist views, later, The Irish Times, like other national newspapers, had problems with Irish Government censorship during World War II. The Times was largely pro-Allied and was opposed to the Éamon de Valera governments policy of neutrality, in 1974, ownership was transferred to a non-charitable trust, The Irish Times Trust

32.
St Patrick's Cathedral, Armagh (Roman Catholic)
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St. Patricks Cathedral in Armagh, Northern Ireland is the seat of the Catholic Archbishop of Armagh, Primate of All Ireland. The Cathedral stands on a hill, as does its Anglican counterpart, the building of a Catholic Cathedral at Armagh was a task imbued with great historic and political symbolism. Armagh was the Primatial seat of Ireland and its ancient ecclesiastical capital where St Patrick had established his Great Church, yet, since the Irish Reformation under Henry VIII, no Catholic Archbishop had resided there. Thus, by the end of the Eighteenth Century, there were few Catholic Churches, Following Catholic emancipation in 1829, the need to construct churches and cathedrals to serve this population became critically apparent. The lack of a Catholic presence in the Primatial City of Armagh in particular became a cause of discontent among the emerging Catholic episcopacy, clergy. Archbishop William Crolly was appointed to the Catholic See of Armagh in 1835 and almost immediately sought permission to reside in Armagh, having settled in the town, he then set about seeking a site for a new Catholic Cathedral. A dramatic site at the apex of a hill on the outskirts of the town had however sold to the Earl of Dartrey. A building committee was established and a weekly penny collection taken in for the construction project, the architect was to be Thomas Duff of Newry who had designed the Cathedral there and also the Pro-Cathedral at Dundalk. As at Dundalk, the style was a romanticised and markedly un-historicist version of the Perpendicular Gothic of the sixteenth century. The foundation stone was laid on St Patrick’s day 1838 but as a result of the Irish Famine, work ground to a halt in 1847 with the foundations and aisles only partially complete. Archbishop Crolly was himself a victim of the famine, contracting cholera whilst tending to famine ravaged Drogheda and his successor, Archbishop Paul Cullen abandoned the project and moved the Primatial See to Drogheda. It was only when Cullen was translated to Dublin and Archbishop Joseph Dixon was appointed to the See of Armagh that work recommenced in 1854, by this time, Duff was dead and there had been a revolution in ecclesiastical architectural taste in Ireland. Following visits to Ireland by A. W. N, Pugin, the Perpendicular Gothic style of the sixteenth century had fallen from favour and earlier Medieval Gothic had become more popular. The architect James Joseph McCarthy, a pupil of Pugin, was appointed to oversee the completion of the Cathedral. McCarthy did not wish to continue to build in the now unfashionable Perpendicular Gothic of Duff and his solution was to start building a Decorated Gothic Cathedral of the fourteenth century on top of the purportedly sixteenth century foundations and walls. Decorated Gothic tracery was inserted into the window openings and at the West end, he reduced the size of the traceried window. The pitch of Duff’s roof was raised a full 6.1 metres, adding greatly to the impact of the building and permitting the insertion of clerestory. A sense of drama was added to the transepts by the addition of asymerical spired turrets to their ends, the most dramatic change effected to Duff’s plans was the abandonment of the three rather squat towers designed by Duff to reach a height of 39 metres

33.
St Peter's Cathedral, Belfast
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St. Peters Cathedral, Belfast. is the Roman Catholic cathedral church for the Diocese of Down and Connor, and is therefore the episcopal seat of the Roman Catholic Bishop of Down and Connor. It is located in the Divis Street area of the Falls Road in Belfast, Northern Ireland and it is home to St Peters Schola Cantorum. The cathedral was originally a parish church and it was designed by Fr Jeremiah Ryan McAulay, who had trained as an architect before he became a priest, and built on a site donated by a local baker. It opened on 14 October 1866, until the Reformation the cathedral of the Diocese of Down & Connor had been at Downpatrick. Since that was no longer available, St Peters was made into a pro-cathedral, or temporary cathedral, for the Diocese, until 29 June 1986, when it became a cathedral in the full sense

34.
Cavan Cathedral
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The Cathedral of Saint Patrick and Saint Felim, also known as Cavan Cathedral, is a Roman Catholic cathedral located in Cavan, Ireland. It is the seat of the Bishop of Kilmore, and the church of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kilmore. In 1152, the Diocese of Kilmore was formally established by Cardinal Giovanni Paparoni at the synod of Kells, in 1454, Pope Nicholas V gave permission for the ancient church at Kilmore to be the cathedral church of Kilmore diocese. It was rebuilt and became to be known in Irish as An Chill Mhór and anglicised as Kilmore, which gave its name to the diocese, a name which has remained ever since. During the Reformation, the Roman Catholic diocese lost possession of the cathedral and all the other temporalities, following the completion of the new Anglican cathedral in 1860, the pre-Reformation cathedral became a Church of Ireland parochial hall. For almost 300 years the Roman Catholic diocese did not have a cathedral, in 1862, Cavan parish church was extended and it became the new cathedral of the diocese under Bishop James Browne. In 1938 construction of the present cathedral began, and was completed in 1942 under Bishop Patrick Lyons, W. H. Byrne & Son were the architects of the new cathedral, and the contractor was John Sisk & Son. The total build cost of the cathedral was £209,000, the cathedral was dedicated to Saint Patrick and Saint Felim in 1942 and consecrated in 1947. Six stained glass windows from the studios of Harry Clarke were added to the cathedral in 1994, information on the cathedral from the Diocese of Kilmore

35.
St Eugene's Cathedral
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St Eugenes Cathedral is the Roman Catholic cathedral located in Derry, Northern Ireland. It is the Mother Church for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Derry and it wasnt until the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829, that the possibility of building a Roman Catholic cathedral in Derry could be contemplated. Fundraising for the building of the cathedral took place from 1840, work began on the construction of the cathedral in 1849. The cathedrals location is next to Francis Street and Creggan Street in Derry, the total cost of building the cathedral amounted to just over £40,000. Money was raised not just in Derry and Ireland, but also in America where around £4,000 was raised, the architect commissioned to design the cathedral was J. J. McCarthy who had built numerous cathedrals across Ireland. The plan of the cathedral is a simple neo-gothic expression, the cathedral was officially opened on 4 May 1873 by the then Bishop of Derry, Francis Kelly. The project to build the bell tower and spire was postponed until a further date as no funds were available for the project. At first the cathedrals windows were made of just plain glass due to lack of funds and it was not until the late 1890s when stained glass windows were installed. Work on the tower and spire began on 13 August 1900, with the contract to build the tower and spire being awarded to Courtney. Work was completed on 19 June 1903, the changes to the Roman Catholic liturgy in 1962/1964 meant that the sanctuary of the cathedral had to be reorganised. In May 1964 a temporary wooden altar was placed in the sanctuary to accommodate the mass being said in English, in 1984 fundraising began for the renovation work to the cathedral, which its main structure was over a hundred years old and in desperate need of repair. From 1984 until 1988, exterior renovation work took place on the cathedral with the extension of the sacristy, in June 1989 the cathedral was closed for six months for a permanent reorganisation of the sanctuary. The old temporary fittings were removed and a new floor made from Sardinian granite was completed. A new square altar made from Carrara marble was made and installed in the sanctuary under the chancel arch, the old pulpit was taken out and a brand new lectern made of marble was installed. The celebrants chair and tabernacle stand were all made from Carrara, a new tabernacle was made in silver-plated bronze, and was constructed by a Kilkenny silversmith, Peter Donovan. A new secondary porch was created in the entrance in the 1989 renovations along with a new small porch in the North aisle. The main high altar table was taken out, however the original reredos which was installed in 1904, was kept, a new lighting scheme was installed, to give the cathedral more brightness and warmth which it had lacked for many years

36.
Cathedral of St. Eunan and St. Columba
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It was built between the years of 1890 and 1900 and there are two Catholic cathedrals in the county, with, an older Roman Catholic cathedral of the same name is located in the town of Raphoe. The Cathedral was commissioned by late Cardinal ODonnell, then Bishop of Raphoe, the Cathedral, located on Castle Street opposite Conwal Parish Church in the town celebrated its centenary in 2001. It was designed by William Hague, the well known Dublin architect and protégé of Pugin, saint Eunans Cathedral has a spire with a height of 240 feet. White sandstone from Mountcharles was used in the construction and it was shipped along the coast and up the Swilly. Townspeople carried bucketloads of the sandstone to the construction site piece by piece, the cathedral is furnished in oak, with a marble pulpit by Pearse Brothers of Dublin. The pulpit depicts statues of the Four Masters and the Four Evangelists, the ceilings are the work of Amici of Rome, while the stained glass windows that illuminate the Sanctuary and the Lady Chapel are by the Mayer firm of Munich. They depict thirteen scenes from our Lords life, celtic motifs and stained glass have been designed by Harry Clarke and Michael Healy. The Great Arch illustrates the lives of St. Eunan and St. Columba, the sanctuary lamp is made of solid silver and weighs over 1500 ounces. Some sculptures were created by William Pearse who took part in the Easter Rising, there are 12 bells in the Cathedral bell chamber. The 12th bell weighs over 2 tons 5 cwts, after the Cathedral was opened the organist played ODonnell Abu, St Patricks Day, The Last Rose of Summer, The Wearing of the Green and The Bells of Shandon. The Cathedral was renovated and remodelled in 1985, care was taken to preserve the style and materials of the original altar in the new altar table and chair. The original altar-piece, an Irish carving of Leonardos Last Supper, is present in the Cathedral and has been incorporated into the new altar. The sandstone exterior of the cathedral was cleaned in July 2001, the stone was then repaired and pointed with a special mortar of lime and sand. Krystol Hydrostop was finally applied to the exterior, the Blessed Sacrament Chapel of Adoration or The Adoration Chapel, as it is more commonly known as, is situated on the grounds of the Loreto Convent. It was officially opened on December 4,1988 by the Bishop of Raphoe and this single-room chapel is a reconstructed building based on the site of an old school set up by the Loreto Sisters. It is not definitively known when the building was constructed - however during reconstruction work in 1988. The chapels granite altar was designed by Barry Feely from County Roscommon, and is located in front of a stained glass window which displays the Virgin of the Sign icon

37.
St Macartan's Cathedral, Monaghan
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St Macartans cathedral is the cathedral church of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Clogher in Ireland. It is located in the townland of Latlurcan, Monaghan town in the parish of Monaghan. It was built between the years of 1861 and 1893 and is the only Catholic cathedral in the county, the cathedra of the Bishop of Clogher was removed to Monaghan town in the mid-19th century. The plan for the cathedral was proposed in 1858 by Bishop Charles MacNally, the site was purchased in 1861. Architect James Joseph McCarthy designed the cathedral in a 14th-century Gothic architectural style was begun in 1862, architect William Hague Jr. from Cavan oversaw the building of the spire after 1882, which stands 81 metres high, as well as the gate lodge. The Cathedral was renovated and the interior was simplified and left feeling bare. For those looking to pray to the Blessed Sacrament, the Tabernacle can be out of immediate eyesight on the right hand side of the sanctuary. Patrick Mulligan, Bishop of Clogher List of cathedrals in Ireland Monaghan Guide, St. Macartans Cathedral Archiseek, St. Macartans Cathedral Cathedrals and Churches of Ireland, Monaghan

The term stained glass can refer to coloured glass as a material or to works created from it. Throughout its …

The north transept rose of Chartres Cathedral donated by Blanche of Castile. It represents the Virgin Mary as Queen of Heaven, surrounded by Biblical kings and prophets. Below is St Anne, mother of the Virgin, with four righteous leaders. The window includes the arms of France and Castile.

This photo appeared in the Sunday Independent on 13 August 1922, with the caption: "A Dangerous Corner - This photograph was taken in one of the towns captured during the past week by the National Army. It shows an armoured car "manoeuvring for position" at the end of a street facing the post office. Irregulars occupy the further end of the street, and are being quickly dislodged by infantry supported by the armoured car."